View-Master Interactive Vision was an interactive VHS console game system, introduced in 1988 by View-Master Ideal Group, Inc. The tagline was that the console was "the Two-Way Television System that makes you a part of the show!" The titles included four Sesame Street games, and two games featuring the Muppet Show characters, as well as a Disney game, Disney's Cartoon Arcade, by Cinemaware.


This has been tested and is playable on a television using the original console, if you use the DVD-formatted version (VIDEO_TS) burned to disc. The alternate audio buzzes on original hardware, unfortunately.

The system comes with a simple game controller which included a joystick and five colorful buttons. As the video plays, the characters address the player directly, and ask the player to make a choice by pressing one of the buttons. Simple videogames with graphics similar to the ColecoVision video game system are played during the course of the videotape. The Disney game is built around the "arcade-style" gameplay, including fighting ghosts and shoveling coal into a fireplace. The games were designed for audiences ages 3-8 years.

The video has two different soundtracks recorded, and the player's choices toggle back and forth between the soundtracks, giving the impression that the player has changed the course of the story.

For example, at the end of Muppet Madness, Kermit and Gonzo ask you to choose to hear the closing song from their point of view. In Kermit's version, the Muppets sing a closing number called "Everything Was Wonderful!" In Gonzo's version, the closing number is "Everything Was Terrible!" Similarly, a Muppets TV show within the program is either a science fiction series or a soap opera, depending on the soundtrack, and Fozzie Bear's comedy act is successful or unsuccessful.

Although there is only one video track, the optional parts of the soundtrack are designed to fit the movement of the Muppets' mouths, to create the illusion that the video was recorded with only one soundtrack.

This is the only interactive media to feature Jim Henson extensively before his death (although only the two Muppet tapes contain new footage with Henson), along with the Muppet performers. The Muppet tapes are entirely new footage, while the Sesame Street tapes are a mix of new footage and some existing segments.

In the game Muppets Studios Presents: You're the Director, Kermit the Frog leads the player through the process of making a Muppet movie. You can choose to either be the "good" director or the "bad" director. During the game you're asked to collect money bags as they show up onscreen. If you haven't collected enough, the closing song's lyrics say "We've just made some movies. We're gonna go broke!"  (Alternately: "We're gonna go far!")

Disney's Cartoon Arcade contains a collection of arcade-like mini games, including a Frogger inspired game where Mickey Mouse must cross a busy highway in order to get to Minnie Mouse. The mini-games display 1bpp computer graphics similar to the ColecoVision's capabilities. All the animation is reused from existing Disney shorts, and is hosted by Ludwig Von Drake.

When the VHS tapes are played without the View-master console, information is visible on the sides of the screen. Something similar to an audio waveform appears at the left side of the screen, while bursts of barcode-like information occasionally appear at the right.

The company is most well-known for its View-Master toys, which are designed around viewing stereoscopic photograph slides. In a message that was printed on all of the View-Master Interactive Vision boxes, View-Master Ideal Group Inc. president Arnold Thaler explained the philosophy behind the product. He viewed the system as a "two-way learning and entertainment television system," as the characters on screen would often address the user directly, and their interactions would change depending on the user's choices. He was particularly fond of the console's ability to remember the choices that had been made, allowing for a recap or final score to be provided to the user.

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Manufacturer: View-Master Ideal Group, Inc.
ACTV, Inc. (original concepts)
Release date: 1989
Introductory price: $120
Storage: VHS and digital

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The VHS Tapes:

    Disney's Cartoon Arcade
    Muppet Madness (Jim Henson's Muppets)
    Muppet Studios Presents: You're the Director
    Sesame Street: Let's Learn to Play Together
    Sesame Street: Magic on Sesame Street
    Sesame Street: Let's Play School
    Sesame Street: Oscar's Letter Party

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THE RESTORATION

This version has been remastered by Garrett Gilchrist in an attempt to achieve higher quality and stability, and to include the alternate audio from the best available restored sources. These will be provided in a few formats, but the DVD format should be especially useful, as it can be used with the original console and a CRT television. Alternate audio tracks can be selected with your remote. The second track is edited to match the onscreen alternate audio. In many cases, just listening to the alternate audio will show the interactive functionality of the scene. A third track is provided for songs "Sing/Canta" and "Sing in the Bathtub," and Ludwig Von Drake's audio.

The library of this game system has been considered "lost media" for years, due to the difficulty of actually capturing all of the alternate audio and graphics that appear, which may not turn up in a single playthrough. Additionally, the VHS video needs to be captured in the highest quality and stability possible, including the original interlaced 59.94 fps frame rate.

Garrett Gilchrist began this restoration in 2014, but was only able to release a version of Muppet Madness at the time.

This time round, the somewhat experimental vhs-decode software was used. All seven videotapes were captured as RF data by Andrew York (Titan91). Additionally, Tony Anderson provided and captured a second version of Disney's Cartoon Arcade. It was decoded using vhs-decode software, with troubleshooting by Jitterbug, oln, Harry Robins and the Domesday Decode Discord. A backup MiniDV capture was also done by Garrett Gilchrist.

The VHS tapes and gameplay samples were provided by Zachary Christensen, via the Youtube channel ZC_Infinity. Other existing captures were sometimes used to fill in the rare audio. Thanks also to MAME and gaming experts TheMogMiner and Sean Riddle, as well as Max Krieger and Cabel Sasser, who have consulted on efforts to get this system emulated (a work in progress).

These captures were decoded and carefully edited by Garrett Gilchrist, with noise reduction performed and sources combined. Currently, results from vhs-decode have a severe diamond or crosshatch pattern of noise on saturated colors, and this was minimized using dual captures for Disney's Cartoon Arcade. For Muppet Madness, two other MiniDV captures were carefully stabilized by hand, and added to the overall mix. MiniDV captures are also part of the mix for the other tapes to an extent. These captures tend to be vertically unstable due to the unusual nature of these tapes, so only some scenes were edited in this manner.

There was also severe distortion "fizzing" during title sequences, which appear to be brighter or darker (or just a stronger signal) than the software is expecting. This was fixed in editing as much as possible by averaging frames and sources, so that any still frame is an average of dozens of frames and seems more stable. Scrolling credits were also averaged to an extent.

It is possible to decode the onscreen alternate audio using AEO-Light software. However, the results from this were much lower quality than using the console itself. This was used sparingly as reference only. Most of the alternate audio is from gameplay videos using the console. Noise reduction and other filtering was done to all audio sources. It is possible that we will be able to improve these audio edits further in the future, either with emulation or an "Audio Test DVD" I've edited elsewhere.

Sesame Street: Let's Learn to Play Together and Let's Play School are missing small amounts of footage in the Titan91 captures. The Greeblies animation, the Cookie Monster bakery scene and Oscar's lobster story glitch briefly, affecting the data. This footage is replaced from my own MiniDV sources here.

An alternate version of Disney's Cartoon Arcade was prepared by Garrett where the clips from Disney shorts have been replaced with newer remastered sources when possible. The Ludwig Von Drake scenes are an exception, as there are no recent sources for most of these. However, these have been restored as much as possible, and the original 60s audio of Von Drake provided as an alternate audio track. Bonus clips of Ludwig Von Drake (and friends) are also included on the DVD, that were found when looking for sources. (In particular, there are laserdisc-sourced scenes from "Carnival Time" and "The Hunting Instinct.")

Some (not many) of the Sesame Street musical sequences were replaced with DVD sources. EBSynth and Photoshop were used to generate new DVD-quality frames when the VHS source was slightly longer than the DVD source. This obviously helps with the problem of the diamond/cross-hatch noise patterns on saturated colors. In particular, "Octopus Blues" looked very poor from the VHS and has been replaced with a master source here.

Magic On Sesame Street:
"Honk Around the Clock" / "I Don't Want to Live On the Moon"
Oscar's Letter Party:
"Octopus Blues" / "The Frogs In the Glen" / "Caribbean Amphibian"
Let's Play School:
"Shark Song" / "Madrigal Alphabet" / "Doin' the Pigeon"

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